428 A WORD FOR THE POOR TO LORD ALTHORP. 



thousand parochial turnkeys all, directly or indirectly, appointed 

 and removable by the crown accomplish this splendid scheme, and 

 you may safely dispense with the assistance of a few obnoxious sine- 

 cures and places. In addition to an enormous revenue, get hold of 

 the distribution of the poor rates then of the county rates then of 

 the public tolls turn every penny that is levied for public uses into 

 the means of ministerial patronage let the country be crowded with 

 paid officers and expectants, and you will not only consolidate your 

 power, but, like Didius, you may buy the nation with its own 

 money. It is the interest of the people, my Lord, to trouble the go- 

 vernment with the control of their affairs no more than is necessary. 

 Many a gentleman has become a dependant upon his steward from 

 having neglected this salutary principle ; and it has infinitely more 

 cogency in public than in private life. A corrupt government can 

 only exist by its resources for corrupting the people ; and the people, 

 therefore, as the mutual bond of their independence, should conspire, 

 that the government shall have as few favours to lavish as possible. 

 The commissioners have calculated as shrewdly, as they have pro- 

 vided liberally, for the permanence of your government ; and it is 

 only meet that, as they have been so bold in the battle, they should 

 not be forgotten in the division of the spoil. 



You will, perhaps, imagine that plain farmers are not likely to 

 argue in this manner upon the rationale of government. To confirm 

 my prediction as to the manner in which they will receive such a mea- 

 sure as the commissioners propose, it is not necessary that they should 

 do so. There is sufficient of a personal nature in it, to enlist both 

 their opinions and feelings against it. There is not a man of spirit 

 and common sense amongst them, who will not treat the commis- 

 sioners' slander with scorn, and their Utopian scheme with contempt. 

 When they understand that this projet has been concocted by the 

 duplicate of a bishop, a lawyer, and " a litterary gentleman," their 

 indignation may retax into derision ; and that is the most favourable 

 sentiment which, under the most favourable circumstances, it will 

 excite. Can your lordship expect it to be otherwise ? Can you ex- 

 pect them to consent, much less to co-operate, in a plan so absurdly- 

 conceived and so preposterously urged ? Do you suppose that it 

 will be very agreeable to a little community of responsible men, to 

 have some fellow, the very fact of whose needing such a place will 

 negative the presumption that he was ever master of, or fit for, any 

 business of his own to have some such fellow saddled upon them, 

 to regulate their affairs, to tax them arid tutor them, to execute " pub- 

 lic works" at their expense, and to strut over the district a living 

 libel upon their integrity and sense ? Do you suppose that they will 

 exert their influence with the poor, that they will proffer their alli- 

 ance to the commissioners, with such a delectable consummation as 

 the reward of it? They will not, my Lord; and unless you would 

 sow the seeds of an evil far greater than it is your design to eradicate ; 

 unless you would affect something of far more vital importance than 

 even the stability of your own government, I entreat you, and in no 

 hostile spirit, to abandon the project without parley or delay. 



A. W. 



